By Tyler Ruth ’16

As a part of MCPS’s ongoing efforts to become a more environmentally friendly and sustainable organization, the departments of Facilities Management and Materials Management, in partnership with SunEdison LLC, have begun installation of solar panels on Sherwood and three other schools. Installation of 2,041 solar panels onto the entirety of the roof (excluding the auxiliary gym) of Sherwood was supposed to begin on August 24 but permits have not yet been attained, delaying the project indefinitely. The project is expected to be done by mid-December.

MCPS made an agreement with SunEdison LLC for the latter to be responsible for the possession, installation, operation, maintenance and financing of the photovoltaic cells that are rated for a capacity of approximately 564 kilowatts at Sherwood (total energy for all of the solar panels being installed at the four schools is 2.2 megawatts). Last year Sherwood used 2,060,074 kilowatt-hours in energy. Depending on the time of year, the solar panels at Sherwood will be able to account for 20-40 percent of those power needs. In exchange for this, MCPS has agreed to a 20-year term agreement for the solar panels to be hosted on MCPS property.

SunEdison LLC was chosen for the project because of its successful installation and operation of solar panels on eight schools in 2008 and 2009. SunEdison LLC also provides MCPS with the most competitive prices as the prices have essentially been subsidized so SunEdison LLC can offer fixed prices that are lower than the competition. With this new deal in place, MCPS has an estimated annual utility cost avoidance of about $206,000.

All the energy produced by the SunEdison panels will be bought up by MCPS and used only in accordance with MCPS buildings and services. This means that no energy will be distributed to the surrounding communities like some residential owners of solar panels choose to do in order to be paid for the outputted energy to the county.

Since 2003, MCPS has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by over 70,000 MtC02e (million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent) from the 178,000 MtCO2e that used to be produced every year before sustainability management plans were put into place. With the new solar panels and better power management, such as using LED instead of fluorescent lights, timed lighting and virtualization of servers, MCPS hopes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by another 15 percent by 2024. MCPS plans to install solar panels at more schools.